Some photographers have vision, and other photographers have a vision. In other words, some photographer’s work is about seeing, while other photographers have a particular vision.
Stephen Shore

If truth be told I have been waiting for a frosty morning since October 2011 here in that there London and it just hasn't happened. And so this morning I made my way in the dark of the early hours armed with my big tripod and 5/4 camera. Its been many moons since I was last out in the dark, but the senses were as sharp as ever, may be even super sharp.. I guess the combination of workshops and tutorials over the past year has made me practice what I preach. That and may be the twenty odd years using the same techniques.

Character is what you are in the dark..
Dwight Moody

NIGHT/SHIFT. PHOTOGRAPHS BY LYNN SAVILLE.

NIGHT/SHIFT. PHOTOGRAPHS BY LYNN SAVILLE.
Introduction by Arthur C. Danto. The Monacelli Press, a division of Random House, New York. Clothbound;142 pages; 85 color plates. ISBN No. 978-1-58093-21906. Information: http://www.monacellipress.com , or http://www.lynnsaville.com .

This compelling and beautifully reproduced collection of New York city nightscapes places photographer Lynn Saville in heady company, and not merely that of the Weeges or Arbuses who once codified the modernist dark side of Manhattan. As Columbia University professor and The Nation's art critic Arthur C. Danto writes in his introduction, Saville is "the Atget of vanishing New York, prowling her city at the other end of the day, picking up pieces of the past in the present, just before it is swallowed by shadows."

The comparison is apt if inverted, since Atget chronicled an early-morning, near-deserted Paris, while Saville has specialized in nocturnes, pitting familiar objects against a luminous night sky, and now turns a color-saturated, ambient-lit style toward a similarly deserted New York, just as evening falls. The peaceable moodiness of these urban meditations conveys a near-religious radiance. It belies the urban, quotidian emphasis on industrial sites, elevated train trestles, a garish Nathan's hot dog joint against the undiminished azure sky. Meanwhile, the slick streets, multi-level parkland, classical archways, steel girders, raw facades, glaring lampposts and illuminated windows of the city are enriched for us, as Saville's camera frames them with an eye for fascinating detail and Renaissance perspective--the Bethesda fountain, for example, glimpsed in blue winter twilight from beneath a far arcade, or a view of the Manhattan skyline from behind New Jersey's iconic waterfront Pepsi-Cola sign.

Saville's "Night/Shift" may well bear comparison to past masters, but it also evokes the contemporary night vision of another photographic artist, Marcus Doyle, who likewise deals in ambient light, long exposures, unpeopled locales and saturated color. But where Doyle's images are often so far removed from urban iconography that they take on the aura of alien shrines, Saville's remain doggedly devoted to revisioning the familiarities of the city. And yet one photo, of the sterile corners of Wyeth Avenue, feels otherworldly, and is bisected down the middle by a lamp pole, all of it echoing a Doyle image that similarly breaks the modernist rule against symmetry in framing a foregrounded vertical element.

Indeed, Saville is part of a photographic vanguard, one that drinks deeply of the possibilities of available light, hyper-real color and evocative yet unromanticized subject matter. And just as her work may inspire comparison to photographic pioneers such as Atget, they also remind us of painterly masters such as Edward Hopper, who found a visual vocabulary that bespoke modern isolation without indulging in cheap effect or overstatement. Lynn Saville's photographs are in such a grand tradition, yes, but their real strength is that they seem to be establishing a new tradition as well.

R.I.P Eve arnold.

I was saddened to hear that Eve Arnold passed away this week at the ripe old age of 99.
The image above has been on my wall for many years having come by the print in my early days of printing. It has survived five house moves, one of which was to the USA, and has long been a favourite image. What few people don't know is that the entire roll of film that this image is from has a scratch running all the way through it. A challenge to spot if ever there was one (no Photo Shop back then).
Such timeless and touching images may never more be created thanks to publicists and the like guarding their ten percent..

LET US BEGIN..

Despite getting the feeling that I have lost my entire readership, I will continue to write due to my delusions of grandeur in thinking that I am an inspiration to those young upcoming photographers who like to make landscape images.

If I never read the papers, watched the news, and listened my neighbours, it would appear that the future is quite bright for the one they call the Doyle.

A new year with promise of change and direction began with an entire overhaul of my printed portfolio, a mini retrospect if you will. So after removing the cobwebs, books piled on top of, tax returns, love letters and a pair of squashed sun glasses, I got under way.
I had forgotten just how exquisite a hand print can be and it was a joy to ponder through a mountain of images fuelled only by 'Mr Espresso' and a new found enthusiasm. The old was mixed with the new and after a day of editing I had the 96 page, grey cloth bound beast ready for viewing.
So now I say to you all;

LET US BEGIN...

During my edit orgy I found this rather nice image of an old dried up leaf which makes a nice 6/4" postcard should you wish to print out a copy for yourself..

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS to you..

Well it's about this time of year when bloggers write some meaningful piece of blob about how we should all be kind to one another with peace on Earth and all that. Very nice that may be, but writing it it won't change the world. But what do I know..

Make sure to check out my new blog (One Elephant) which will run along side this one (in theory) and will commence in January. It's sure to be full of fun, angst, and may be the odd fight with a student or an unsuspecting tutor as I study for a Masters in photography.

So Stay Hungry, Get Fat, and remember the boy who got everything he ever wanted.

He lived happily ever after...